Terror in the night

I'm pretty sure Belle had a night terror the other night. She woke up at around 11:45 p.m. flailing around, wide-eyed and screaming. Everything about it was spooky, except that she kept saying, "I don't want that for a special treat! I want something different!" That echoed her protests from after dinner, when she really wanted a chocolate ice cream bon bon, but we gave her an ice cream sandwich instead. It threw a little levity into the mix.

Then she was saying random things, like "I don't want to ride the city bus!" and "I don't want to go to preschool!" She had such a strange, terrified expression on her face, and she kept kicking her legs and shaking her hands. As hard as we tried to comfort her, she wasn't having it. We just couldn't connect with her.

The typical night terror episode usually begins approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. The child sits up in bed and screams, appearing awake but is confused, disoriented, and unresponsive to stimuli. Although the child seems to be awake, the child does not seem to be aware of the parents' presence and usually does not talk. The child may thrash around in bed and does not respond to comforting by the parents.

Most episodes last 1-2 minutes, but they may last up to 30 minutes before the child relaxes and returns to normal sleep.

If the child does awake during a night terror, only small pieces of the episode may be recalled. Usually, the child does not remember the episode upon waking in the morning.

All of that fits. It took Belle a few minutes to calm down, then I laid down beside her and it took another half hour for her to fall back asleep. She didn't remember any of it in the morning.

Apparently, night terrors can be caused by being overtired, which I think was the case with Belle. For some reason, this week she hasn't been falling asleep until nearly 9pm, which is an hour later than normal. But she's getting up at the same time, which means she's probably developing a sleep deficit.

Now that I know what happened, hopefully I'll be able to handle it better if it happens again. Babycenter recommends:

Of course, your first instinct will be to comfort him, but your efforts will most likely be futile (remember, he's not really awake and he's not aware of your presence). You just have to wait it out and make sure he doesn't hurt himself. Don't speak to him or try to soothe him, and don't try to shake or startle him awake or physically restrain him -- all of which could lead to more frantic behavior. In 15 to 20 minutes, your child should calm down, curl up, and fall into a deep sleep again.